Kolache Festival

Sarah Sneed, of Prague, and her daughter Jessica have been coming to the Kolache Festival for six or seven years in a row now, but this year was a little different for them.

By Jessica Walkerjessica.walker@news-star.com

Sarah Sneed, of Prague, and her daughter Jessica have been coming to the Kolache Festival for six or seven years in a row now, but this year was a little different for them.

“It is way too cold for the parade,” Sneed said.

She said she’s been coming to the festival for years now, but she also came when she was younger like her daughter and loves the festival. Sneed said this year has been the coldest she remembers and that made for a slightly smaller crowd.

Sneed and her daughter, like most at the parade, stayed bundled up together in a blanket. Although it was quite a different type of weather this year as compared to the 90 plus degree weather of last year, there was still a good turn out. Prague bakery was sold out of Kolaches immediately following the parade.

The Kolache Festival, which began in 1951, is always held on the first Saturday in May in Prague and usually attracts around 25,000 people. It is estimated that around 50,000 Kolaches are eaten during the festival.

“I don’t have a favorite Kolache because I like all of them,” Sneed said.

Along with the parade and the Kolaches, the festival also consists of an arts and crafts show, an amusement carnival, live singing and dancing, and much more.

Beth Lockhart, from Harrah, said this is her second year to set up a booth at the arts and crafts show.

“I love watching the parade and the folk dancing…all the traditional things,” she said.

Weather didn’t seem to affect her or her booth sales this year she said. Lockhart said some people wouldn’t get out in the summer weather just as much as some people won’t get out in the chilly weather.

“The only difference in the weather is last year it was 90 and this year it’s 50 degrees,” she said.

Patsy Frazier, from Olive, said this is her first year at the festival and she was looking forward to having some Kolaches.

“It would be more fun if the weather would cooperate,” she said.

Although most attendees of the festival would agree with Frazier, one booth owner was really glad the weather was cooler this year.

“The weather is in my favor,” Pat Sweet, from Davis, said.

She was also a first time attendee of the festival and said she likes the festival a lot and will definitely be coming back next year. Sweet crochets hats, rugs and other items and sells them in her booth. She said she thought at first she would be selling more rugs, but because the weather was so cold, she ended up selling a lot of hats and head wraps.

“I had to start making more because I kept selling out of the head wraps,” she said.

The Kolache Queen, Jr. Queen and Princess candidates are crowned every year at 6 p.m. followed by a Kolache eating contest, street dancing and fireworks.